Foo Fighters

Icons and Outlaws

David Eric Grohl was born in Warren, Ohio on January 14, 1969. Mom is teacher Virginia Jean Hanlon and dad was news writer James Harper Grohl. In addition to being an award-winning journalist, Dave’s dad had also served as the special assistant to Republican Congressman and US Senator Robert Taft Jr.

When Dave was young, the Grohl family moved to Springfield, Virginia. When he was seven, his parents divorced, and he was raised primarily by his mom. At the age of 12, he began learning to play the guitar. He grew tired of lessons and instead taught himself, eventually playing in bands with friends.

He said, "I was going in the direction of faster, louder, darker while my sister, Lisa, three years older, was getting seriously into new wave territory. We'd meet in the middle sometimes with Bowie and Siouxsie and the Banshees."

At 13, Grohl and his sister spent the summer at their cousin Tracey's house in Illinois. Cousin Tracey introduced them to punk rock by taking the pair to shows by several different punk bands. His first concert was Naked Raygun at The Cubby Bear in Chicago in 1982. Grohl recalled, "From then on we were totally punk. We went home and bought Maximumrocknroll, (a punk subculture music zine that ran from 1982 to 2019) and tried to figure it all out." In Virginia, he attended Thomas Jefferson High School as a freshman and was shockingly elected class vice-president.

He taught himself to play pieces of songs by punk bands like Circle Jerks and Bad Brains and, using his clout as vice president, would play them over the school intercom before his morning announcements. His mother decided he should transfer to Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria because he was smoking too much weed and it was affecting his grades. He stayed there for two years, one of those repeating his first year.

After his second year, he transferred yet again to Annandale High School. While in high school, he played in several local bands, including a short stint as guitarist in a band called Freak Baby. It was during this period that he thought it was a good idea to switch to learning drums. When Freak Baby kicked out its bass player and reshuffled its lineup, Davel took on the role of drummer and history was made. Show’s over, folks! The band then changed their name to “Mission Impossible.”

Dave has said he did not take drumming lessons and instead learned by listening to Rush and punk rock bands. Obviously, insanely talented and possible robot and Rush drummer Neil Peart was an early influence: "When I got 2112 when I was eight years old, it fucking changed the direction of my life. I heard the drums. It made me want to become a drummer."

During his beginning years as a drummer, Grohl cited John Bonham as his greatest influence, and eventually had Bonham's three-rings symbol tattooed on his right shoulder. Mission Impossible changed their name once again to “Fast” before breaking up, after which Dave joined the hardcore punk band Dain Bramage in December 1985.

Dain Bramage ended in March 1987 when Dave up and quit without warning to join Scream, having produced the I Scream Not Coming Down LP. Many of Dave’s early influences were at the 9:30 Club, a music venue in Washington, D.C. He said, "I went to the 9:30 Club hundreds of times. I was always so excited to get there, and I was always bummed when it closed. I spent my teenage years at the club and saw some shows that changed my life."

As a teenager in D.C.,Dave briefly thought about joining shock-rocker punk/metal band, GWAR, who were looking for a drummer around this time. At age 17, Dave auditioned with local Washington, D.C. favorites Scream to fill the vacancy left by the departure of drummer Kent Stax. In order to be considered for the position, Dave lied about his age, saying he was 34. I’m kidding but he did say he was older.

To Dave’s surprise, the band asked him to join and so he pulled a Jay-Z (last week’s Icon) and dropped out of high school in his junior year. He has been quoted as saying, "I was 17 and extremely anxious to see the world, so I did it."

Over the next four years, Grohl toured extensively with Scream, recording a couple of live albums (their show of May 4, 1990 in Alzey, Germany being released by Tobby Holzinger as Your Choice Live Series Vol.10) and two studio albums, No More Censorship and Fumble, on which Grohl penned and sang vocals on the song "Gods Look Down". During a Toronto stop on their 1987 tour, Grohl played drums for Iggy Pop at a CD release party held at the El Mocambo, which became best known for the 1977 surprise show by The Rolling Stones, which became popular when then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's wife, Margaret Trudeau, showed up and partied with the Stones.. In 1990, Scream unexpectedly disbanded mid-tour when bassist Skeeter Thompson left the band.

Nirvana (1990–1994)

We obviously can’t talk about Foo Fighters without discussing Nirvana. They’ll definitely have their own episode so we won’t get too into them today.

While playing in Scream, Grohl became a fan of the Melvins and eventually befriended them. During a 1990 tour stop on the West Coast, Melvins guitarist Buzz Osborne took his friends Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic, of future Icons Nirvana, to go see Scream. Grohl called Osborne for advice after Scream disbanded and Osborne informed him that Nirvana was looking for a drummer. He gave Dave the phone numbers of Cobain and Novoselic, who then invited Grohl out to Seattle to audition. Grohl soon joined the band. Novoselic later said, "We knew in two minutes that he was the right drummer." Dave told the U.K. based magazine Q: "I remember being in the same room with them and thinking, 'What? That's Nirvana? Are you kidding?' Because on their record cover they looked like psycho lumberjacks... I was like, 'What, that little dude and that big motherfucker? You're kidding me'."

When Dave joined Nirvana, they had already recorded several demos for the follow-up to their debut album Bleach, produced and recorded by Butch Vig. Initially, the plan was to release the album on Sub Pop, but they received a ton of label interest based on their demos. Dave spent the initial months with Nirvana traveling to various labels as the band shopped for a deal, eventually signing with DGC Records. In the spring of 1991, the band entered the infamous Sound City Studios in Los Angeles to record Nevermind as seen in Dave’s amazing documentary, Sound City, from 2013.

The album Nevermind was released later that year and exceeded all expectations becoming a worldwide commercial success. At the same time, Dave was compiling and recording his own material, which he released on a cassette called Pocketwatch in 1992 on indie label Simple Machines. Rather than using his own name for the project, Dave released the songs under his pseudonym "Late!"

In the later years of Nirvana, Dave’s songwriting increased. In his first months in Olympia, Washington, Kurt Cobain overheard him working on a song called "Color Pictures of a Marigold", and they wound up working on it together. Dave would later record the song for the Pocketwatch cassette. Dave stated in a 2014 episode of the documentary series, Foo Fighters: Sonic Highways, that Kurt kissed him when he first heard a demo of "Alone + Easy Target" that Dave had recently recorded. According to Dave, "I'd told him I was recording and he said, 'Oh, I wanna hear it, bring it by.' He was sitting in the bath-tub with a walkman on, listening to the song, and when the tape ended, he took the headphones off and kissed me and said, 'Oh, finally, now I don't have to be the only songwriter in the band!' I said, 'No, no, no, I think we're doing just fine with your songs.'" Nirvana would jam Dave’s song on soundchecks during their 1991 European tour.

Dave reluctantly held back his songs in the beginning. In a 1997 interview he said, "I was in awe of [Kurt Cobain's songs], and [I was] intimidated. I thought it was best that I kept my songs to myself."

During the sessions for In Utero, Nirvana’s third and final studio album, the band decided to re-record "Color Pictures of a Marigold" and released it as a B-side on the "Heart-Shaped Box" single, with a slight title change; "Marigold". Dave also wrote the main guitar riff for "Scentless Apprentice", another song on In Utero. In a 1993 MTV interview, Kurt had said that, at first, he thought the riff was "kind of boneheaded", but was happy with how the song developed. Part of this development process can be heard in a demo on the Nirvana box set ``With the Lights Out”, released in 2004. Cobain had said that he was excited at the possibility of having Chris Novoselic and Dave contribute more to the band's songwriting.

Before embarking on their 1994 European tour, Nirvana scheduled session time at the popular Robert Lang Studios in Seattle to knock out some demos. The recording session was only 3 days long and Cobain wasn’t there for most of it, so Chris and Dave worked on demos of their own songs. They completed several of Dave’s songs, including future Foo Fighters songs "Exhausted", "Big Me", "February Stars", and "Butterflies". On the third day, Kurt finally arrived, and the band recorded a demo of a song later Titled "You Know You're Right". It was to be Nirvana’s last studio recording.

After the death of Kurt Cobain in 1994, the band known as Nirvana broke up. Dave received numerous offers to work with various artists and there were rumors saying he might join Pearl Jam. Dave almost accepted a position as the drummer for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. He later said: "I was supposed to just join another band and be a drummer the rest of my life. I thought that I would rather do what no one expected me to do."

Instead he booked time at Robert Lang Studios in October 1994 and began recording 15 of his own songs.

Dave played every instrument and sang every vocal part on the record with the exception of one guitar part on "X-Static", which was played by Greg Dulli of the Afghan Whigs,.

He completed an album's worth of material in only five days and handed out cassette copies of the sessions to his friends for feedback.

Dave hoped to keep his anonymity and release the recordings in a limited run under the title "Foo Fighters", taken from the World War II term "foo fighter", used to refer to unidentified flying objects. "Around the time that I recorded the first FF tape, I was reading a lot of books on UFO's. Not only is it a fascinating subject, but there's a treasure trove of band names in those UFO books!" he said. "So, since I had recorded the first record by myself, playing all the instruments, but I wanted people to think that it was a group, I figured that FOO FIGHTERS might lead people to believe that it was more than just one guy. Silly, huh?" Continuing, Dave contends that a better band name could have been created. "Had I actually considered this to be a career, I probably would have called it something else, because it's the stupidest fucking band name in the world."

The demo tape circulated the music industry, creating serious interest among record labels. This WAS the drummer from arguably the biggest rock band in the world, right?

Dave put together a band to support the album. He talked to Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic about joining, but they both decided against it; Dave said it would have felt "really natural" for them to work together, but would have been "weird" for the others and place more pressure on himself.

Having heard about Sunny Day Real Estate breaking up, Dave snagged the group's bass player, Nate Mendel, and their drummer, William Goldsmith. Dave then asked George Ruthenberg to join the band as their second guitarist. George, better known as Pat Smear, played as a touring guitarist for Nirvana after the release of In Utero. Pat was one of the founding members of the iconic punk band, The Germs, and Dave was a huge fan.

Dave then licensed the album to Capitol Records, releasing it on his new record label, Roswell Records. Get it? Roswell. UFO’s?

The very first Foo Fighters show happened on February 19th, 1995. They played above a boat house in Seattle in front of friends and family. They made their official live, public debut on February 23rd, 1995 at a gig at the Jambalaya Club in Arcata California. They just happened to be in the area mixing their album when a local promoter asked the cover band, The Unseen, if Foo Fighters could open for them.

They agreed.

Dave and his band of Foo Fighters then embarked on their first US tour in April of 1995 in support of The Stooges and Porno For Pyros bass player Mike Watt’s solo tour. This tour featured an additional new band called “Hovercraft”, an instrumental outfit featuring Pearl Jam singer, Eddie Vedder.

Dave refused to play large venues or even do interviews to promote their debut album. The first single, “This Is A Call”, was released in June of 1995 and the album, “Foo Fighters”, was released in July containing the follow up singles “I’ll Stick Around”, “For All the Cows”, and “Big Me”.

Foo Fighters toured for almost an entire year and then jumped right back into the studio. This time it was Bear Creek Studio in Woodinville, Washington with English producer Gil Norton who produced the Pixies, Jimmie Eat World, Counting Crows and so many more.

Dave, of course, wrote the songs but the band had a hand in arrangements. Nearly finished, he took the rough mixes to LA to finish his vocal and guitar parts. As he was listening to the mixes, something just didn’t sound right. It wasn’t what he envisioned. The drums weren’t perfect, not that they were bad. Dave was a drummer. He knew drums. He had a career based on playing the drums and could arguably be considered one of the greatest rock drummers of all time. So, he set up some drums, mic’d them up and re-recorded the drums for the album. All of them.

Dave wanted Goldsmith to remain as their live drummer, but he was rightfully butthurt. Goldsmith quit. He quit what would become one of the biggest rock bands ever.

Recently, drummer William Goldsmith has said “It was a pain in the ass. Like, that’s the only band that I wish I could just, like, remove that from.” He continued by saying: “It doesn’t matter what happened because the Foo Fighters are like Disney. Everyone wants to love Mickey Mouse. Everyone loves Mickey Mouse, so it's a difficult thing, but sometimes Mickey Mouse is a little rough around the edges. It’s a no win scenario, so I’d rather remove it. I think the best thing to do is have a one on one conversation with Mickey.” He has gone to say that he has no ill will towards Dave.

Shortly after this, Pat Smear decided to leave, as well, claiming he was exhausted and burnt out.

Goldsmith and Smear were replaced by the late, great Taylor Hawkins and former Scream guitarist Franz Stahl, respectively, although Stahl was fired before the recording of the group's third album, There Is Nothing Left to Lose in 1999.

Drummer Taylor Hawkins had played as Alanis Morissette’s drummer from June of 1995 until March of 1997 in support of her “Jagged Little Pill” and “Can’t Not” tours.

I thought it would be cool to hear Taylor explain how he wound up being Foo Fighters drummer and Dave Grohl’s best friend. This is all from interviews Taylor Hawkins and Dave Grohkl did with NME, Entertainment Weekly and Kerrang.

“I’d met Dave at this [US radio station] K-Rock Christmas show because Foo Fighters were on their way up and Alanis Morrissette was through the f***ing stratosphere at that point,”. “Me and Dave just looked like long lost brothers in a weird way.

“We had a similar vibe and I don’t know why. I remember my friend playing with the Foo Fighters before I met Dave and watching them goof around backstage. He said to me, ‘That guy could be like your brother.’

“And sure enough, when we met, we just thought, ‘We’re brothers from another mother!’ It was instantaneous – so much so that Alanis Morrisette just said ‘What are you going to do when Dave asks you to be the drummer in the Foo Fighters?'”

“I was driving with my girlfriend at the time, and we were listening to KROQ,” “I heard William had departed and they were looking for a new drummer.”

Tylor immediately called Dave. “I said, ‘I heard you guys are looking for a drummer,’ and he said, ‘Well, do you know any?’ I thought Alanis wanted to go in a more laid-back direction, and it seemed like the right time to jump. Alanis didn’t need me! I basically said to Dave, ‘I’ll play drums for you,’ and we jammed a couple of times.

“I remember I was at home watching Showgirls with my girlfriend, and Dave called to ask if I wanted to join.”

Initially, Dave never thought Taylor would leave Morissette and Taylor’s allegiance was always with Alanis; that’s why he asked Taylor if he knew of any good drummers. When Hawkins agreed to join, all Dave cared about was that he was getting a friend, not a great drummer.

Dave told Entertainment Weekly, “I sent Taylor a tape of one of the new songs. It was ‘Monkey Wrench.’ I went over to his little house in Topanga Canyon, he sat down and played for three seconds, and the first time he hit a snare drum, I knew it.”

Dave knew Taylor was the guy. “I swear to God, I was like, ‘That’s all I need to f***ing hear. I love you as a person. You’ve just given me hearing damage for the rest of my life in three seconds. You have to be in the band.”

Later, Grohl said Hawkins came into his life like an F5 tornado. “When he joined the band, his drumming was the least important factor – I just thought I want to travel the world with this guy, I want to jump on stage and drink beers with this person. That was my biggest concern,”.

Morissette didn’t take Hawkins leaving personally. They remained friends over the years. Taylor has said he would have been delivering pizzas if it wasn’t for her. She was the first person who gave him a break in the music world. “She gave me a lot of space to do what I wanted. It was probably the biggest album of the year (referencing her debut album “Jagged Little Pill”), and there was a lot of pressure on her. She was having to learn to be this leader on the job, which isn’t easy. But it was really one of the most fun times of my life.”

The band announced Tylor would be its new drummer on March 18, 1997. His first appearance with the Foo Fighters was in the music video for the 1997 single "Monkey Wrench", although the song was recorded before he joined the band.

Foo Fighter’s second album, “The Colour and the Shape” was released on May 20th, 1997 through Capitol and Roswell Records with the legendary singles, “Monkey Wrench”, “Everlong” and “My Hero” blasting through the airwaves. The album charted at number ten on the Billboard 200 and was nominated for a Grammy in 1998 for best rock album. It has sold more than 2 million copies.

The band then traveled to Dave’s home state of Virginia in 1998 to record their third album, “There Is Nothing Left To Lose”. Dave and Pat Smear’s replacement, Franz Stahl, just couldn’t see eye to eye as songwriters. Dave said "in those few weeks it just seemed like the three of us were moving in one direction and Franz wasn't." Franz was Dave’s childhood friend and the decision to fire him from the band was a hard one.

Then, shortly after Franz’s termination, bassist Nate Mendel called Dave and said he was quitting to rejoin Sunny Day Real Estate, but the next day changed his mind and decided not to leave.

Dave, Taylor and Nate spent the next several months recording their third album at Dave’s home studio. “There Is Nothing Left To Lose” spawned mega hits like “Learn To Fly”, “Stacked Actors”, “Generator” and “Break Out”.

“Learn To Fly” was the band’s first single to chart on the US Billboard Hot 100.

Right before the album was released, the president of Capitol Records (Foo Fighters record label), Gary Gersh was forced out and with the help of a “key man clause” in their contract, they were allowed to leave Capitol upon Gersh’s release. They left Capitol to sign with RCA who then bought the rights to their previous albums from Capitol.

Upon completing the recording of their third album, the band started auditioning guitarists. Foo Fighters selected No Use For A Name and, what I didn’t know, Me First and The Gimmie Gimmies guitarist, Chris Shiflett. He was only supposed to come into the fold as the band’s touring guitarist, but was hired on full time before they recorded “One By One”, their fourth studio album.

Right around 2001, Dave and Taylor, being diehard fans of the band Queen, established a relationship with the future Icons and Outlaws episode subjects. Dave and Taylor had the distinct pleasure of inducting them into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that same year and joined them to perform the 1976 classic, Tie Your Mother Down, with Taylor playing drums alongside Roger Taylor. Queen’s legendary guitarist Brian May even added a guitar track to Foo Fighters' second cover of Pink Floyd's "Have a Cigar", which was on the soundtrack to Mission: Impossible 2. In 2002, guitarist Brian May contributed guitar work to Tired of You and an outtake called Knucklehead. The bands have performed together on several occasions since, including VH1 Rock Honors and Foo Fighters' headlining gig at Hyde Park in London, England.

At the end of 2001, the boys got together to record their fourth studio record, “One By One. They spent four months in a LA studio and something was off. The spark just wasn’t there and the band were having issues, internally. So, Dave stepped away for a while and worked with Queens of the Stone Age, helping them complete their 2002 record, “Songs for the Deaf”. Touring commenced for Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age, but the internal struggles were still there and just as they were about to call it quits, they hit the stage at Coachella. Dave and Taylor wanted to complete the album and the next day, they rocked the festival and agreed to do so.

Almost every part of the album was scrapped and re-recorded at Dave’s studio in Virginia, in only ten days. Seven songs from the original recording of One By One eventually leaked, but the full album has never been released. That record has often been referred to as “Million Dollar Demos”.

The band finally released its fourth album, One by One, in 2002. This record had hit singles like “All My Life”, “Have It All”, “Low” and “Times Like These”. This was Chris Shiflett’s first recorded appearance as part of the band and where Taylor played all of the drums. “One By One” topped the charts globally and sold a million units in the U.S., bringing home a Grammy for Best Rock Album in 2004.

Supporting One By One by touring for a year and half, Dave wasn’t in a hurry to record another Foo Fighters album. He was more interested in doing an acoustic, solo record but it turned into a full band ordeal. They built a new studio in Northridge, Los Angeles, called Studio 606 West and began recording their 5th album, In Your Honor, a two disc set with full blown rock songs on one and the other with acoustic tracks. It was released in 2005 and had the hits, “DOA”, “Resolve” and one of my all time favorites, “Best of You”. The album also had guest performances by Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones, Queen of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme and Norah Jones. It also featured their new keyboardist, Rami Jaffee of the Wallflowers, who wouldn’t become a full-time member until 2017.

“In Your Honor” was nominated for five Grammy Awards, hit the number one spot in five countries and number two in the U.S., selling more than a million copies.

Foo Fighters released their first live CD, “Skin and Bones” in November of 2006, with 15 songs recorded at a 3 night performance at the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles. The album featured a violinist, Pat Smear joining in and a three song encore with Dave playing “Best of You”, “Everlong”, and “Friend of a Friend”. The record debuted at number 21 on the Billboard 200, sold 49,000 copies in its first week and over 357,000 total.

Foo Fighters released its sixth album, Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, in 2007 and recruited producer Gil Norton, who worked on the band’s “The Colour and the Shape”. This was primarily because Dave felt the songs were different from the band's previous input and "had the potential to be something great". So, he considered that instead of doing something like the last three albums, the band had to go out of "our own comfort zone" and "needed someone to push us out of there".

Preparing to record this album was extensive: first Dave started off developing demos with Taylor, but for the first time he tried to input vocals and lyrics early in the writing phase. After finalizing the song's composition with guitarist Chris and bassist Nate, Dave spent two weeks with Gil Norton discussing "arrangements, harmony and melody" and condensing the song ideas. They then spent four weeks rehearsing, and playing "a song a day, from noon to midnight". Taylor stated that "we basically played each of these songs 100 different times, trying every little thing every different way" and that it was the first time since The Colour and the Shape ``that Dave had to deal with someone in the room questioning all his ideas". Dave claimed the choices were for the "most powerful, dramatic songs" and that there was an effort to "make everything sound as natural as possible – just like on the albums we grew up listening to".

On this album’s sound, Taylor Hawkins said: "We haven't been ready to write a record like this until now. I know that Dave wouldn't have been comfortable putting violins on a song before. But for whatever reasons, it just felt like the right time to explore those things now. The last record, obviously, was half heavy stuff, half acoustic songs. So it really was like two sides of the coin. It sounds obvious, but this time around we weren't afraid of incorporating everything into one song if it felt right."

The first single, “The Pretender”, topped Billboard’s modern rock chart for 19 weeks. Other singles from this album were “Long Road to Ruin”, “Let It Die” and “Cheer Up Boys”. It was nominated for five Grammys, winning Best Rock Album and Best Hard Rock Performance and won the Brit Award, (Britain's version of the American Recording Academy) for Best International Album.

Foo Fighters hit the road again in 2007 on a world tour and at the European MTV Music Awards, Pat Smear was confirmed as a returned member of the band.

June 7th, 2008 saw Foo Fighters headline the world renowned Wembley Stadium in London, England. Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin joined them on stage and after rocking out the songs “Rock and Roll” and “Ramble On”, Dave excitedly shouted “Welcome to the greatest fucking day of my whole entire life!”

The attendance at this amazing sold out concert was 85,000.

In August 2010, the band began recording their seventh studio album with the return of producer Butch Vig. The album was recorded in Dave’s garage using only analog equipment. The album won five Grammys and was nominated for six.

Planning the seventh album, Dave realized he was bored of the band's typical recording process. Even though the group own 606 Studios, he is still a punk rocker at heart, and found himself yearning for a grittier, wholly analogue approach to recording. One night in his hotel room in Melbourne, while on tour with Them Crooked Vultures (his side project with Josh Homme and John Paul Jones), he hatched a plan to return to recording basics for what was to become Wasting Light.

Dave told Sound on Sound.com, "I thought, rather than just record the album in the most expensive studio with the most state‑of‑the‑art equipment, what if Butch and I were to get back together after 20 years and dust off the tape machines and put them in my garage? We've recorded an album somewhere where no‑one has ever recorded before. We've not gone to the studio where Zeppelin made In Through The Out Door, we've gone into my garage. The only person that's recorded in my garage before is me for shitty demos that I've done for the last two records.”

The first single from Wasting Light, "Rope", was released to radio in February 2011. On April 16, 2011, Foo Fighters released an album of covers, Medium Rare, as a limited-edition vinyl for Record Store Day. Wasting Light debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, becoming the band's first album to do so. Other singles for the album were "Walk", "Arlandria", "These Days", and "Bridge Burning".

Alongside Wasting Light's release, the band released a rockumentary, directed by Academy Award-winner James Moll. The film, titled Back and Forth, chronicles the band's career. Current and past members, and producer Butch Vig, tell the story of the band through interviews. After debuting on March 15, 2011, at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, it was released on DVD three months later.

The first batch of ‘Wasting Light’ CDs include pieces of the album’s analog tape master

Look inside your CD copy of the band's Wasting Light album. If you were one of the first fans to pick one up, chances are it includes a piece of the original analog tape the album was recorded on.

After announcing a break after touring in support of Wasting Light, Dave said in 2013 that they were starting to write new material for their 8th studio album, “Sonic Highways”, bringing back Butch Vig. They announced their return to the stage by posting a video of Erik Estrada, one of the main actors from the 70’s motorcycle cop show, CHIPS, riding a motorcycle and delivering each member of the band an invitation to play in Mexico.

They announced that their eighth album would be released in November of 2014 and they would commemorate it and their 20th anniversary with an HBO TV series called “Sonic Highways”, directed by Dave, himself.

Eight songs were written and recorded in eight studios in eight different American cities with video capturing the history and feel of each town. Each track features contributions from one or more musicians with ties to that city's musical history.

The album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, with sales of 190,000 copies in the United States. It has sold over 617,500 copies in the US and had amazing songs like “Something From Nothing”, “The Feast and the Famine”, and “Congregation” featuring country artist, Zac Brown

Foo Fighters were the last musical performance on Late Show with David Letterman on May 20th, 2015, as he retired from his 33 year career as a late night show host.

On June 12th, 2015, Dave had the misfortune of falling off the stage in Gothenburg, Sweden and breaking his leg during the second song. The band kept playing while Dave was fixed up by the medical staff and then RETURNED TO THE STAGE to finish the last two hours of their set while sitting in a chair and a medic taking care of his leg. He was flown to London, England after the show and received six metal pins to stabilize the fracture in his leg.

There was speculation that Foo Fighters would drop out of their 20th anniversary, fourth of July bash, after canceling their remaining European dates following Dave’s accident. Instead, The band performed for 48,000 people with Dave in a custom-built moving throne which he claimed to have designed himself while on painkillers. They renamed the following tour the “Broken Leg Tour”.

November 25th, 2015 Foo Fighters released a surprise EP named “Saint Cecilia”, available for digital download, and Dave announced an indefinite hiatus. This EP peaked at number 3 on Billboard’s mainstream rock songs chart.

Krist Novoselic, who played with Grohl in Nirvana, described Saint Cecilia as Foo Fighters' "statement on how they are the biggest rock band in the world". Novoselic also said that "Saint Cecilia is more straight-ahead rock that is done really well", and went on to say that "I went to the Foo’s last gig at the Moda Center in Portland and they rocked a packed house. I love the drummer Matt Sorum (Guns and Roses). However, he is so wrong in his statement about danger and the Foo’s somehow lacking it. First off all, I know about danger in rock. I was the bassist in Flipper — and survived! Look at a band like Queen, who totally rocked. They were way more dandy than danger. Queen knows how to rock a stadium. So do the Foo Fighters and you’ll hear big rock on Saint Cecilia".

Rumors about Foo Fighters breaking up were everywhere so, the band released a mockumentary video in March 2016 portraying Grohl leaving the band to pursue an electronic music career and Nick Lachey (formerly of 98 Degrees) becoming the group's new singer, ending with: "For the millionth time, we're not breaking up. And nobody's going fucking solo!"

Dave announced that the band would spend most of 2017 recording their ninth studio album, “Concrete and Gold”. On June 1, 2017, their new single "Run" was released. Run topped the US Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs chart the following month. On June 20, 2017, the band announced that their new album, Concrete and Gold, would be released in September. On August 23, 2017, The Sky Is a Neighborhood was released as the second single and topped the Mainstream Rock chart. The Line was released in promotion of the album and later as the third single in 2018. Concrete and Gold was officially released on September 15, 2017, produced by Greg Kurstin. Concrete and Gold also features Justin Timberlake on vocals for Make It Right, Shawn Stockman of Boyz II Menon backing vocals for the song Concrete and Gold, and Paul McCartney on the drums for Sunday Rain.

Concrete and Gold has sold over 262,000 units.

In October 2019, the band announced that they were recording their tenth studio album based on Dave’s demos. In November 2019, the band began releasing a series of EPs under the umbrella name of the Foo Files, largely consisting of previously released B sides and live performances. By February 2020, Dave announced that the new album was complete but by May, it was delayed indefinitely because of a little unforeseen event called the COVID-19 pandemic, saying, "We've kind of shelved it for now to figure out exactly when it's going to happen."

Starting in November 2020, promotion for the album ramped up. Its title, Medicine at Midnight, and release date, February 5, 2021, were announced. The band released three singles ahead of the album: "Shame Shame", "No Son of Mine", and "Waiting on a War".

On February 10, 2021, Foo Fighters were announced as one of the 2021 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees in their first year of eligibility as their debut album had been released 25 years prior. On May 12, 2021, Foo Fighters were announced as one of 6 performer inductees. For Record Store Day on July 17, 2021, the Foo Fighters released an album of disco covers, Hail Satin, under the name Dee Gees. The album contains four Bee Gees covers, a cover of Andy Gibb's "Shadow Dancing", plus five live versions of Medicine at Midnight tracks.]

On February 25, 2022, the band released a comedy horror film, Studio 666, directed by BJ McDonnell. It stars the band members as themselves, alongside Will Forte, Whitney Cummings, Jeff Garlin, and Jenna Ortega. In the movie, the band attempts to record an album in a haunted mansion; Dave is possessed by a demonic spirit and the other members are killed off one by one. It was filmed in the same mansion in which the band had recorded their most recent album, Medicine at Midnight. Studio 666 is currently available on Amazon Prime Video.

Dave has recently released an EP of songs from the film, Dream Widow, on March 25, 2022.

On March 25, 2022, Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins died in his room at the Casa Medina hotel in Bogotá, Colombia. No cause of death was given. Taylor had suffered chest pain, and had ten substances in his system at the time of his death, including opioids, benzodiazepines, tricyclic antidepressants, and THC. Foo Fighters were scheduled to perform that night at the Estéreo Picnic Festival as part of their ongoing South American tour; the festival stage was turned into a candlelight vigil for Taylor. A few days later, the band canceled all remaining tour dates.

According to Sony Music Japan, FOO FIGHTERS sold over 32,000,000 albums worldwide, including 9,065,000 in the United States and 5,260,000 in the United Kingdom. The best-selling album by FOO FIGHTERS is GREATEST HITS, which sold over 2,775,000 copies .